Archive for March 15th, 2013

The project finds its place in a band, potentially flooded, between the Seine and the railroad, shores and hillsides. These are occupied by “bourgeoises” mansions, theirs gardens and parks. The riversides shows a mix of homes, modest or opulent – self-built huts, old houses, speculative operations–industrial plants or deposits expiring or abandoned.

Built in the 1980s the school complex in St.Veit/Glan houses the “Bundesrealgymnasium” and the “HLW” with around 1100 students. With additions and reorganization arrangements the existing building is upgraded to the latest technological standards. In the existing structures the classrooms where re-organized, the fire safety and escape routes where improved and the whole building is barrier free accessible.

De Karel Doorman consists of the renovation of a shopping building: Ter Meulen and an added residential building. Restoration and new-build The new residential building is up to 70 metres in height and includes 114 apartments. It is built on top of the Ter
Meulen building in Rotterdam. This is an unusual project as the new building literally rests on the columns and foundations of the existing structure. The only additions are a pair of concrete lift shafts which also provide stability. The construction technique is unconventional for a project in the Netherlands, as the main structure is in steel instead of heavy stone-like materials as concrete and limestone.

CitizenM is a new Dutch hotel group that opens their first hotel at Schiphol Airport in the second quarter of 2008. The concept of the hotel is to cut out all hidden costs and remove all unnecessary items, in order to provide it guests a luxery feel for a budget price. The hotel exists of 230 rooms of 14 sq. m, all prefabricated produced in citizenM’s own factory and easy to transport. The rooms are stacked on a ground floor with a dynamic lobby / living-room space, creating rooms and F&B functions. Since CitizenM believes a great bed and a simple and clean bathroom is all we need during a city or business trip, the design is focused on these items.

Design Story: The challenge was to design all public spaces within the new public library in Almere. The building was designed by Meyer en van Schooten Architects. The overall design scope consisted of 5000m1 linear meters of bookshelves and accompanying facilities: counters, internet areas, a read café, study areas and a multimedia department. At the request of the client we contributed to the development of the shop-concept: a commercial approach, instead of a standard library positioning and structure, where books are presented to a ‘customer’ and where the library itself becomes a place to stay; more like a modern retail concept.

The client, Yandex corporation, wanted to see this project as an office which would complement the already existing offices of the company located in Benois Business Centre. Accordingly, it is the second stage of offices on the 5th floor which was completed in 2012, and the first office on the 4th floor which was introduced into service in 2008. The mentioned office is located on the 4th floor, and the task was to connect it with the first stage office which has been in operation for a long time already.

Our client has been a contractor of high-end custom homes for the last 20 years. This, the 7th in a series of houses he has built for himself, is essentially an exercise in architecture and building that explores the boundaries of prefabrication within the realm of architecture and the aesthetic expectations within the custom home market.

The site is defined in the city boundary. The whole complex is a smooth transition from the urban fabric to the non built space and vice versa.A space grid/interconnection that is able to co-exist in an autonomous way or as an integral part of the city, while at the same time constitutes a landmark for the city of Pafos.

US$2.6 billion project is integral to Turkey’s plan to make its economy one of the world’s 10 largest by 2023

HOK developed the master plan for the Istanbul International Financial Center (IIFC) in Turkey, which is being built on a 170-acre site on the city’s Asian side. The Turkish government’s goal for the landmark IIFC project is to establish Istanbul as a global center for finance. The IIFC will house the head offices of the country financial market governing bodies, state-owned and private banks, and related businesses. It will include approximately 45 million square feet of office, residential, retail, conference, hotel and park space. With 13.5 million people, Istanbul has the world’s second-largest population behind only Shanghai. A February 2013 article in The Economist ranked Turkey’s economy as the world’s 17th-largest.

The Walta-Elmers family commissioned VMX Architects to design their house on ‘Kleine Rieteiland’, one of the islands of IJburg. The client wanted a spacious, open house with plenty of light. The plot measures 8 by 30 metres. By studying several models, the concept of ‘woonlandschap’ (living-landscape) was chosen. The ground floor, containing the living and kitchen, in a split level typology, has the possibility to completely open to the outside and thereby create a partly covered living-landscape of 8 by 30 metres.